power was already beginning to totter and to crumble to pieces.
America was her treasure house, and from it alone could she hope

to keep her leaking purse full of gold and silver. So it was that
she strove strenuously, desperately, to keep out the world from

her American possessions--a bootless task, for the old order upon
which her power rested was broken and crumbled forever. But

still she strove, fighting against fate, and so it was that in
the tropical America it was one continual war between her and all

the world. Thus it came that, long after piracy ceased to be
allowed at home, it continued in those far-away seas with

unabated vigor, recruiting to its service all that lawless malign
element which gathers together in every newly opened country

where the only law is lawlessness, where might is right and where
a living is to be gained with no more trouble than cutting a

throat. {signature Howard Pyle His Mark}
Howard Pile's Book of Pirates

Chapter I
BUCCANEERS AND MAROONERS OF THE SPANISH MAIN

JUST above the western" target="_blank" title="a.西北的；自西北的">northwestern shore of the old island of
Hispaniola--the Santo Domingo of our day--and separated from it

only by a narrow channel of some five or six miles in width, lies
a queer little hunch of an island, known, because of a distant

resemblance to that animal, as the Tortuga de Mar, or sea turtle.
It is not more than twenty miles in length by perhaps seven or

eight in breadth; it is only a little spot of land, and as you
look at it upon the map a pin's head would almost cover it; yet

from that spot, as from a center of inflammation, a burning fire
of human wickedness and ruthlessness and lust overran the world,

and spread terror and death throughout the Spanish West Indies,
from St. Augustine to the island of Trinidad, and from Panama to

the coasts of Peru.
About the middle of the seventeenth century certain French

adventurers set out from the fortified island of St. Christopher
in longboats and hoys, directing their course to the westward,

there to discover new islands. Sighting Hispaniola "with
abundance of joy," they landed, and went into the country, where

they found great quantities of wild cattle, horses, and swine.
Now vessels on the return voyage to Europe from the West Indies

needed revictualing, and food, especially flesh, was at a premium
in the islands of the Spanish Main; wherefore a great profit was

to be turned in preserving beef and pork, and selling the flesh
to homeward-bound vessels.

The western" target="_blank" title="a.西北的；自西北的">northwestern shore of Hispaniola, lying as it does at the
eastern outlet of the old Bahama Channel, running between the

island of Cuba and the great Bahama Banks, lay almost in the very
main stream of travel. The pioneer Frenchmen were not slow to

discover the double advantage to be reaped from the wild cattle
that cost them nothing to procure, and a market for the flesh

ready found for them. So down upon Hispaniola they came by
boatloads and shiploads, gathering like a swarm of mosquitoes,

and overrunning the whole western end of the island. There they
established themselves, spending the time alternately in hunting

the wild cattle and buccanning[1] the meat, and squandering
their hardly earned gains in wild debauchery, the opportunities

for which were never lacking in the Spanish West Indies.
[1] Buccanning, by which the "buccaneers" gained their name, was

of process of curing thin strips of meat by salting, smoking, and
drying in the sun.

At first the Spaniards thought nothing of the few travel-worn
Frenchmen who dragged their longboats and hoys up on the beach,

and shot a wild bullock or two to keep body and soul together;
but when the few grew to dozens, and the dozens to scores, and

the scores to hundreds, it was a very different matter, and
wrathful grumblings and mutterings began to be heard among the

original settlers.
But of this the careless buccaneers thought never a whit, the

only thing that troubled them being the lack of a more convenient
shipping point than the main island afforded them.

This lack was at last filled by a party of hunters who ventured
across the narrow channel that separated the main island from

Tortuga. Here they found exactly what they needed--a good
harbor, just at the junction of the Windward Channel with the old

Bahama Channel--a spot where four- fifths of the Spanish-Indian
trade would pass by their very wharves.

There were a few Spaniards upon the island, but they were a quiet
folk, and well disposed to make friends with the strangers; but

when more Frenchmen and still more Frenchmen crossed the narrow
channel, until they overran the Tortuga and turned it into one

great curing house for the beef which they shot upon the
neighboring island, the Spaniards grew restive over the matter,

just as they had done upon the larger island.
Accordingly, one fine day there came half a dozen great boatloads

of armed Spaniards, who landed upon the Turtle's Back and sent
the Frenchmen flying to the woods and fastnesses of rocks as the

chaff flies before the thunder gust. That night the Spaniards
drank themselves mad and shouted themselves hoarse over their

victory, while the beaten Frenchmen sullenly paddled their canoes
back to the main island again, and the Sea Turtle was Spanish

once more.
But the Spaniards were not contented with such a petty triumph as

that of sweeping the island of Tortuga free from the obnoxious
strangers, down upon Hispaniola they came, flushed with their

easy victory, and determined to root out every Frenchman, until
not one single buccaneer remained. For a time they had an easy

thing of it, for each French hunter roamed the woods by himself,
with no better company than his half-wild dogs, so that when two

or three Spaniards would meet such a one, he seldom if ever came
out of the woods again, for even his resting place was lost.

But the very success of the Spaniards brought their ruin along
with it, for the buccaneers began to combine together for

self-protection, and out of that combination arose a strange
union of lawless man with lawless man, so near, so close, that it

can scarce be compared to any other than that of husband and
wife. When two entered upon this comradeship, articles were drawn

up and signed by both parties, a common stock was made of all
their possessions, and out into the woods they went to seek their

fortunes; thenceforth they were as one man; they lived together
by day, they slept together by night; what one suffered, the

other suffered; what one gained, the other gained. The only
separation that came betwixt them was death, and then the

survivor inherited all that the other left. And now it was
another thing with Spanish buccaneer hunting, for two buccaneers,

reckless of life, quick of eye, and true of aim, were worth any
half dozen of Spanish islanders.

By and by, as the French became more strongly organized for
mutual self- protection, they assumed the offensive. Then down

they came upon Tortuga, and now it was the turn of the Spanish to
be hunted off the island like vermin, and the turn of the French

to shout their victory.
Having firmly established themselves, a governor was sent to the

French of Tortuga, one M. le Passeur, from the island of St.
Christopher; the Sea Turtle was fortified, and colonists,

consisting of men of doubtfulcharacter and women of whose
character there could be no doubt whatever, began pouring in upon

the island, for it was said that the buccaneers thought no more
of a doubloon than of a Lima bean, so that this was the place for

the brothel and the brandy shop to reap their golden harvest, and
the island remained French.